DURHAM, N.H. --
University of New Hampshire graduate Amy Fowler has been awarded a Fulbright
Scholarship to conduct research in New Zealand. A resident of Colliersville,
Tenn., Fowler graduated from UNH in 2005 with a degree in marine and freshwater
biology with University Honors designation. She will spend the 2006-2007 academic
year at the Leigh Marine Laboratory in Waitemata Harbour, New Zealand. Working
in conjunction with the World Conservation Union Invasive Species Specialist
Group and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Fowler will
conduct research on the impacts of the invasive Asian Paddle Crab, Charybdis
japonica.

While at UNH, Fowler was a member of the University Honors Program and served
as a laboratory technician under James Byers, assistant professor of zoology.
In spring 2004, working through the UNH Center for International Education,
she studied abroad at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, where
she had many opportunities to explore the marine environment of the Great Barrier
Reef. She spent summers working off the Maine/NH coast at the Shoals Marine
Laboratory, initially as a student, and later as a teaching assistant, island
coordinator and, in summer 2004, as a research intern when she was awarded
a National Science Foundation grant. Under the guidance of Byers, Amy completed
her University Honors thesis on the influence of a parasitic trematode on marine
ecosystems and the local fisheries industry. She presented her research at
the UNH Undergraduate Research Conference and at the International Benthic
Ecology Meeting in Williamsburg, Virg. In spring 2005, Fowler was selected
as an intern at the Marine Invasives Laboratory at the Smithsonian Environmental
Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, where she has been working since graduation.

In keeping with Fulbright’s mission, Fowler plans to supplement her
research activity with community engagement. An avid soccer play, she hopes
to become involved as a player and youth soccer coach while in New Zealand,
drawing on the experiences she had during her semester abroad in Australia.
Following her Fulbright year, she plans to earn her doctorate in marine biology
and teach at the college level.